Zaire Leads Africa in Fight against AIDS

Beginning of article

SUB-SAHARAN Africa, one of the world's poorest and least-educated regions, has more than half the world's estimated 6 million to 8 million cases of AIDS, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most of the 2 million women WHO estimates will die of AIDS in this decade live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of the hardest-hit countries are in Central and Eastern Africa. But in Zaire, a coordinated prevention campaign appears to be making progress.

The challenge is great. Besides the large number of deaths they attribute to AIDS, officials say the disease has serious economic consequences as well.

A study in Zaire estimated that annual loss of income …